What good is it to prise open an old box, however poorly closed? What good does it do to peer inside and inspect the contents? Do you really think you will discover buried treasure? More likely everything to implode your world. Leave that old box alone.
It’s best not to take yourself too seriously, for in a little while nobody will recall a thing you did. Witness your life at work: you may have more or less single-handedly pioneered a new platform, driven a project forward and seen it through to completion. But does anyone now remember any of it? Does …
I’m found out if all I do is hide between the lines, An outsider at the door. I’m unbound, foreign on a path forever mine, This outsider at the door. Blanco White, Outsider
Where is home? If people ask me where I am from, I will invariably respond, Hull, despite having not lived there for twenty-five years. By now, I have lived the greater part of my life elsewhere, but it was in its proximity that I was born and raised. In our mind’s eye, it becomes home …
Woke up this morning with neck pain. I blame walking in the cold rain yesterday. My wife is flapping, diagnosing high blood pressure. Our lad is laughing, reminding me that we were wrestling around on the floor on Saturday in pursuit of the TV remote. Yes, well, it could be any of them. We are …
Perhaps it was for a good reason that I had a mega wobble in 2021, its effects reverberating through 2022. Sure, my ingratitude was on full display, as I trounced myself for being an utter failure, oblivious to blessings all around me. But perhaps it was necessary to go through that, to take stock, reset, …
I would have to write down 2022 as both the quickest and weirdest year of my life. The speed with which it has passed me by alone perplexes me. But the strangeness: that has been something else. Earlier, I spent some time looking back on what I was writing a year ago. But in truth, …
A positive trait in people with this condition? Some people say we are very kind, and like to be helpful to others. But who knows if this is a trait explicitly linked to that extra chromosome. It’s just as likely that having experienced adversity in our own lives, we feel that other people facing adversity …
There’s a saying, “The more I learn, the more I realise how much I don’t know.” This is sometimes attributed to Albert Einstein, sometimes to Aristotle: this in itself proving the point. Regardless, this sentiment summarises the past year for me. In truth, the more I learn about the effects of an anomaly in my …
Try to see struggles as a positive, in that you’ll hopefully come out stronger at the end. The past year was a bit heavy for me, but perhaps all of those introspective reflections will provide a launchpad for change. Inshallah, if God wills, I shall aim higher this year, and try to bring about positive …
I do not care if the hard right — atheist, Christian or Muslim — call me a woke lefty liberal snowflake. For me, being a woke lefty liberal snowflake means caring for the lives of others. To stand with those who for generations have faced societal discrimination, deprived of their natural rights. It is to …
Time, age and maturity changes our perspectives. I once considered it a curse that I had the double whammy of a very religious family and a chromosome disorder, causing the difference which made my interactions with others somewhat complicated. Now that I’m older, I suppose I can see that there were blessings in those circumstances. …
My downfall in the self-esteem stakes was joining LinkedIn in the midst of the pandemic. I was doing okay until then, quite content in my state of being. Joining caused me a massive wobble. I hibernated several times, and closed my account twice, before finally hitting the kill switch for good. Although, admittedly, that was …
Can I turn back time? Apologise for my apologies? Return to oblivion? Wish I’d never wondered? Never listened to the whisperer that whispered into my heart? Unsee what has been seen? Undiscover what has been discovered? If I could, I think I would. But then, if I could, I’d travel a quarter of a century …
Despite the challenges, suggested a friend the other day, there must be advantages of your chromosomal complement. I struggled to think of any. Some identify increased empathy as a positive impact. But where does that come from? Isn’t that just a psychological effect of a youth spent being sidelined and derided for perceived difference? Certainly, …
